TBILISI, February 2 (RIA Novosti) - Georgia may be using American money to pay for natural gas coming from Iran at double the price Russia's energy giant sought in an intriguing twist to a dispute between the two former Soviet republics and a country currently at the focus of the world's attention, a popular Russian daily said Thursday
Georgia has been looking to diversify its energy supplies away from Russia, and after an incident in late January that left it without natural gas from its neighbor, it claimed it had struck a deal with the Islamic Republic that would leave it paying only marginally over the $110 per 1,000 cubic meters that Gazprom was seeking.
But according to Thursday's Vremya Novostei, Iran's Deputy Petroleum Minister Mohammad-Hadi Nejad-Hosseinian spilled the beans about the real price Tehran was going to charge Tbilisi in an interview with Iran's IRNA news agency.
The paper quoted him as saying that under a short-term bilateral contract, Iran would provide Georgia with 30 million cu m of gas over 30 days, and had already received $7 million in advance, which made the price $230 per 1,000 cu m against $110 charged by Russia.
Georgia started its overtures to Iran after a series of blasts on January 22 at the Russian section of the gas pipeline leading to the South Caucasus republic disrupted supplies for about a week. The Georgian authorities accused Russia of perpetrating the accident, and, apparently, opted for the double gas price as a pledge of energy independence from Russia, which they described as "unreliable partner."
However, VN said the political side of the situation seemed controversial. Considering Tbilisi has no other way to patch up its budget deficit but with Washington's financial aid, which is expected to reach $80 million this year, the gas payment was accordingly made with the same funds. Ironically, Georgia is paying for the gas from Iran, the U.S. enemy number one, with American money, the paper said.
Georgian politicians do not seem inclined to comment on the subject, VN said. Only former Foreign Minister Salome Zurabishvili recently said the country expected understanding from Washington: "The U.S. has to understand us and avoid extra demands - we have to exist somehow. We cannot give up both Russian and Iranian [supplies]."
Interestingly, Iran is unable to provide additional gas supplies via Azerbaijan to Georgia, as its northern territories have scarce resources. Tehran even has to purchase about 8 billion cu of gas from Turkmenistan for $44 per 1,000 cu m a year to cover its own needs, VN reported.
Earlier this week, the Iranian and Turkmen presidents, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Saparmurat Niyazov, discussed an increase in gas supplies in winter over the phone. Apparently, Georgia is going to receive Turkmen gas from Iran as well, with the latter reaping the profit, the paper concluded.
